Hello,
I've been reading this forum for months… now I'm joining in. Unfortunately, it's because my ilo dvdr04 has locked up on the beginning "hello" menu; it's 8 months old and I've already had to replace the DVD drive (with a 1693) after about 150 DVD recordings. 3 months and 50 more DVD recordings and this has happened. I am able to turn it off, by pressing the power button on the machine for 4-5 seconds. Pressing the power button or eject button causes the power to go on and then the lockup. The remote signals do not work and the eject button does not activate the eject function (although manually pushing the button on the drive itself does). I have done the various hacks/upgrades regarding region codes, green tin, 3 hr mode and MV.

I've pulled the power (dozens of time including letting it sit 2-3 days without power), pulled power cables, switched out the dvd drive and temporarily replaced it with the old drive which had started to have problems recording but was still playing back, checked cable connections, replugged it in while pressing the eject button… everything I could think of or have read about. Some people have suggested this lockup is a drive problem, but I do not think so after having switched out the drive and still not having gotten out of the hello menu (no video signal out is present; the condition began after a manual recording… the machine does not shut off after such manual recordings and when I checked it hours later, it was locked up.) The fresh DVD that was in the machine had been recorded to.

I had read in some forums how this machine is a "keeper" (in fact I searched all over just to find it) due to the chipset, etc., but after seeing the postings on this lockup (a known problem to ilo apparently) and the fact that the original drive went relatively quickly, I have my doubts.

If anyone has a fix for this "hello" freeze, I would appreciate it. When I let the recorder sit without power for 2-3 days, it still came on with the correct time. I have played with the idea of trying to remove the battery backup that seems to be keeping clock time on the recorder even when the power is off, but I can't find one… perhaps there is none? If there is not one, is there a way of a non-damaging short circuit to try and get a fresh reboot? Any ideas or help on this would also be appreciated. I'm not wanting to send the unit into ilo and that’s assuming I could still find the receipt. Thanks.